This is my favorite 3D Mario by far. Mario feels at his very best in this game, his movement is simply perfect. Every move flows into one another, and every movement option has a purpose. As you play you will get more and more comfortable with Mario's moveset, and begin approaching challenges in really fun and interesting ways. It is extremely satisfying to see an obstacle in this game and think "hm, it looks like the game wants me to do it this way. But I wonder if this way would work instead?". And usually, the way you thought up in your head will work if you execute the moves properly. The game is simply a joy, I got 100% completion with no hesitation. I could not stop playing. I also began to speedrun it because the movement feels so good. The game is absolutely wonderful as a speedrun game, even for someone with little to no speedrunning experience.

Overall a great experience. The movement is once again very smooth and intuitive, Mario feels great to control 99% of the time. Completing the main story was a blast and the world is super cool. However, there are some shines and mechanics that make the game not worth 100%ing, even though I did initially want to. There are about 10-20 shines that feel needlessly frustrating. Unfun rather than challenging. And because I wasn't having fun anymore, I stopped playing. That said, it is absolutely worth playing to beat the main shines. Just don't commit to getting every shine, because it will not be fun.

Wonderful world and level design, but my least favorite 3D Mario game by a long shot. The movement is simply nowhere near as good as it is in other games, lacking a sense of momentum. In 64, Sunshine, and Odyssey, the movement options all felt amazing, especially when chained together. But in Galaxy you have no speed. Everything is so slow and none of the moves combo together well because they have a set speed cap for each one it seems. For example, the long jump gives you a great burst of speed, but as soon as the jump ends Mario immediately is reset to his default run speed, so trying to triple jump with momentum feels terrible. Try this in games like 64 and Odyssey and it will feel way more fluid. I did beat the game and got nearly every star with Mario but felt no need to continue past that because of how unsatisfying the movement is.